The Heart That Never Stops Learning Poem by bonifacio alba

There was a season in my life
When books were my daily bread—
Every page a doorway,
Every chapter a new world to tread.
I read with burning passion,
As if tomorrow depended on each line;
Knowledge felt like a ladder
I needed desperately to climb.
But time has its own language,
Soft and honest in its way.
It whispers to the spirit
As the hair turns gently gray.
I asked myself one evening,
With the quiet truth of age:
Why gather more knowledge
When I've already lived so many pages?
And then a calm voice answered—
Born not of books,
But of scars and years:
Knowledge is for the mind,
But wisdom grows through joys and tears.
Wisdom does not retire,
Nor fade when strength is slow;
It deepens with each sunrise,
And with every letting go.
For reading is not a duty,
Nor a mountain to ascend;
It is a companion of the soul,
A loyal, gentle friend.
Even when the passion quiets,
The love for truth remains;
And the wisdom we have gathered
Lives in heartbeats, not in brains.
So do not mourn the passing
Of the fiery thirst of youth;
Your wisdom now is richer,
Rooted in a deeper truth.
For knowledge lights the pathway,
But wisdom lights the heart—
And the heart keeps learning faithfully
Until its final beat
… and even then,
Wisdom does not depart.